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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (28 February) . . Page.. 416 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

contender for hosting the event. A clear commitment was given that the Brazilian Olympic Committee would visit Canberra after the Atlanta Olympics. Agreement was also reached that the Brazilian Olympic Committee would investigate the potential for export of Canberra's expertise and technology in relation to sports science and sports medicine in connection with their Olympic bid.

To conclude, Mr Speaker, the economic benefits report I have tabled today identifies enormous potential for Canberra to secure substantial returns over the next nine years from international visitors, potential which we would be crazy to ignore and which can, with aggressive marketing, put the national capital on the world map. I trust that members and the public will find this document interesting in terms of what we can achieve leading up to the 2000 Games by promoting the strengths that this city has to offer to the rest of the world. It also forms part of our commitment to keep members of this Assembly updated on the initiatives that this Government is taking to promote Canberra as a sporting and business capital. I would certainly welcome input from all members, and I commend this preliminary report to the Assembly.

Debate (on motion by Mr Wood) adjourned.

MR SPEAKER: I have received a letter from Mr Moore proposing that a matter of public importance be submitted to the Assembly for discussion, namely:

Outsourcing of IT infrastructure and services for the ACT Government.

MR MOORE (3.32): Mr Speaker, I suppose that in writing to you I should have written "Outsourcing of information technology infrastructure", but at this stage I think most people are quite familiar with that jargon. I guess that the term "outsourcing" also fits into a similar type of jargon.

The ACT Government has made many public statements applauding the fact that we have a viable and growing information technology sector in Canberra, one that has the potential to provide a solid and ongoing employment base and can expand through the exportation of our expertise and provision of services. Information technology in Canberra has the potential to become one of Canberra's biggest industries. Indeed, it is already one of our biggest industries, and I believe that it could be much bigger. Mr Speaker, if we get the information technology industry right in terms of a range of things - whether it is manufacture, sales or the development of software and hardware - we have the potential to take this industry well and truly into the export market.

It is well known that Australians are very quick to pick up on information technology, Mr Speaker, which gives us a significant advantage over many other places in the world for this sort of market. We also have the advantage that in Canberra we have a very highly educated community. On a percentage basis, it is much more highly educated than

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